It's not a tiger's scratching post - it's a sub

Jump to Section:

For

Against

Coming up with a natty little subwoofer that can look like a radiator just isn't SVS' style. Neither is designing a tiny box with a bonkers amplifier to make it all but explode with power.

No, SVS has got attitude. It sticks it to the boutique brands, giving you a madness-inducing slice of performance and grunt for a price far less than that offered by the big shiny boys. The SVS PC-12 Plus DSP is unbelievably unsubtle.

It's a sodding great carpeted bass tube, like the bastard offspring of a home cinema system and a 1980s boom car.

Control freak

This offering is a fifth-generation mutation and is actually less massive than the PC-13 Ultra that blew me away once before.

It now arrives with a knob-and-screen adjustment system on the back. Controls include gain, low pass filter (slope and frequency in seven steps from 125Hz to 31Hz), phase by 15˚ steps, 'room gain comp' (on/off), a feature called Subwoofer Tune and a single band parametric equaliser.

This amounts to a couple of curves you can add on and a room cut if you need it. I turned the subwoofer down to deepest bass at 16Hz. I tuned it by ear, knowing that my room has a 70Hz peak and the bass was vast.

Tight, sexy, rich and unflappable on music, it tracked with melodious intent and was effortless in headroom. With Paul on Blu-Ray, the UFO crash had huge, absurd monster deflection and the sheer amount of air moved is way beyond impressive.

That moving, ported air has a 'stretchiness', so it wasn't completely tight, but you can seal those ports one by one for fine-tuning.

Yes, some people will think this subwoofer is far too ugly, but users can always lie it on its side and hide it behind the sofa. Your neighbours will know you have it, though. Even if you live in a detached house.